The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-04-02
SELECTED STORY.
LITTLE r UT H.

know was selfish old idiot, now,
when look around and see the mercies
given me in my helpless old age, and feel
the warm love around me on all sides
and realize the desolation my own hand
reached forth to grasp; but was blind to
the future in those days when SO nearly
wrecked all its happiness.
This was how it happened. After Mar
tina died-rny wife I mean, with whom
forty years of my life were spent-and all
my children we're dead or married, ex-
cepting Ruth, there fell upon me the
heavy misfortune that has chained me to
this chair or my bed for fifteen weary
years. [ had been a Woodworking man
all my life, wheelwright by trade-with
large family to rear, to clothe, to feed,
to educate, and, ali mel one by one to
bury in the old churchyard, till only
Mary, James, and Ruth, our baby, were
left to me. Mary married and went with
her husband to the far West. James took
his small fortune of few hard-earned
dollars and left us for the golden land of
promise. California, and only little Ruth
was left us. Then the angel OF death
came for Martha, and only six months
later was stricken helpless with paraly-
sis.
I am reconciled now to my hard fate,
and can sit here happily, glad that my
eyesight is still good, my right hand free,
and that 1 have learned in my old age to
love books, to enjoy reading and even
writing, as I never did in the hard work
ing days of my youth. But in those first
months of helplessuess, when even to
toss and turn in my nervous torture
was denied me, my sufferings were SIM
ply horrible. No agony of pain, nor tor
ture of flesh or bone could equal the
dreadful pressure upon my strong limbs
that held them motionless, dead in spite
Of my efforts to move them OF little inch.
have tainted with the frightfnl efforts I
have made just to lift once the feet that
had carried me many miles in day
with unwearied ease.
But even in that time of rebellious muir
muring, of bitterest repining, there was
some consolation. First, there was the
house and five acres of land, my very
own, free of debt or mortgage, and
small sum in the bank, the interest of
which lifted us above actual want. Then
/ had Ruth.
She was just twenty when her mother
died, and others beside her father,
thought her face the fairest one for miles
around. She had the bluest eyes, like
the little patches of summer sky, and
hair that was the color of corn silk, and
nestled in little baby curls all over her
head-rebellious hair that would not lie
straight under any coaxing, but kinked
up in tangles that were full Of sunlight.
Her skin was as white as milk, with
cheeks like the heart of blush rose, and
her smile showed the prettiest rows of
pearly teeth I ever saw.
She coaxed me from my wicked repin-
ings by coming for directions, making me
feel that my head was still needed to
direct the work though my feet would
nevermore carry me over the door-siiI.
Then she fitted up for me large back
room that overlooked most OF the farm,
and had Silas, our head man, lift me up
every morning and put me in a deep
cushioned chair by the window, where
could see the barn, the poultry yard, the
well, and the fields of waving corn and
wheat She made me feel myself of i'm
portance by giving me thus the master
eye over my own little domain, and she
brought up her own meals to eat with
me in the room where my infrmity held
me prisoner.
You must understand what Ruth was
to me or you will never understand the
simple story have set myself to telling
you. She taught me to use my right
hand without the left; and if you want to
appreciate the difficulty, tie your left arm
down for one single hour and try how
often it will uneonsciously strain at the
cords. She brought me books from the
village library and opened TO my old eyes
and brain a field of pleasure never before
explored. had read my Bible and the
newspapers oil my life; but 1 never even
knew the names Of books, now my great
est treasures, till Ruth thought "readinR
would be- company" for me. Little Ruth,
even she does not know the world she